Premiership: Another Comeback Win For Man United

• Move clear of Leicester, Chelsea in 2nd position

• Rashford, Greenwood seals 2-1 victory over Brighton

Manchester United could first curse and then thank their academy. Their youth system has supplied at least one player for every first-team squad since 1937 but United’s capacity to also produce footballers for other clubs threatened to harm them when Danny Welbeck put Brighton on course for a maiden win at Old Trafford.

But Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood, two others who followed Welbeck’s path into the United’s forward line and then the England squad, struck in a rescue job after a wretched first half.

Comebacks now seem to represent another of United’s tradition and “We have done that a few times this season, we are getting used to it”, said Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after the match.

On their part, Brighton have acquired an unfortunate habit of losing games from winning positions. This is an addition to the litany of fixtures where they got plaudits but not points. Sadly, their excellence was not shown in the eventual score line.

But if United could reflect with some satisfaction on a weekend when they pulled further away from Leicester and Chelsea, their rivals for the second spot on Premiership league, it was tempered with disappointment at a different sort of loss.

Eric Bailly was absent after testing positive for COVID-19 while Anthony Martial’s knee sprain may have curtailed his campaign. And Solskjaer said of martial; “If we get him back before the end of the season, I will be surprised.”

Yet if Edinson Cavani made for an ineffectual direct replacement for the Frenchman, his absence was certainly offset by the availability of Rashford and Greenwood. Each had withdrawn from England parties but, in a ploy the watching Sir Alex Ferguson might recognise from his playbook, were fit to feature for United.

Rashford, in particular, was the catalyst for the fight back. “Maybe the fireworks have to be lit at half-time,” added Solskjær.

Rashford helped find the fuse. He unleashed a swerving shot. Robert Sánchez parried it, but it began a 10-minute spell that culminated in his equaliser. Solskjær regularly entreats United to move the ball quickly. When they did, they unlocked Brighton; Bruno Fernandes released the advancing Rashford and he was unmarked to place a shot beyond Sánchez.

“The finish was excellent, calm and composed,” Solskjaer said. “Marcus has been working on that a lot.” But Rashford’s return to action might prove short-lived, after he came off.

“He got his foot caught in a tackle,” his managed added. “You just hope he can recover from it.”

So another home-grown attacker assumed the responsibility for finishing off Albion. Greenwood had hit the post with a ninth-minute half-volley, United’s finest moment of a first 45 minutes when Brighton had more ideas and greater incision, but his winner was also the consequence of pressure and again involved the ubiquitous Fernandes.

Solskjaer could claim an assist of sorts, too. After Fernandes and Greenwood had a series of shots, he substituted Cavani. Greenwood was relocated into the middle and when Fernandes crossed and Paul Pogba miscued a volley, the teenager provided the instinctive reaction of a natural predator.

He stooped to head and the despairing efforts of Sánchez and Ben White, who was on the line, were not enough to deny him a first league strike since December.

“When he gets those goals, you know he is going to add another dimension to his game,” said Solskjaer, a connoisseur of the close-range finish from his playing days. – The Guardian report